Read the poems and answer the question below in paragraph form in no less than 300 words in the Discussion Tab.
Scan two poems, one in free verse ("Smell!" William Carlos Williams), and the other in regular meter ("When I was one-and-twenty" A.E.Housman). Now write about the experience. Do you detect any particular strengths offered by regular meter? How about by free verse?
To post your response, click on the Discussion Tab at the top of the page, paste in your essay/response and click post. Then everyone can read all the responses; I can read and grade, and everyone can respond to at least two people in the class in no less than 150 words.
Smell!
By William Carlos Williams
Oh strong-ridged hollowed
nose of mine! what will you not be smelling?
What tactless asses we are, you and I, boney nose,
always indiscriminate, always unashamed,
and now it is the souring flowers of the bedraggled
poplars: a festering pulp on the wet earth
beneath them. With that deep thirst
we quicken our desires
to that rank odor of a passing springtime!
Can you not be decent? Can you not reserve your ardors
for something less unlovely? What girl will care
for us, do you think, if we continue in these ways?
Must you taste everything? Must you know everything?
Must you have a part in everything?
When I was one-and-twenty
By A.E.Housman
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
"Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free."
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
"The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
'Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue."
And I am one-and-twenty.
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.
Writing Assignment:
Read the poems and answer the question below in paragraph form in no less than 300 words in the Discussion Tab.Scan two poems, one in free verse ("Smell!" William Carlos Williams), and the other in regular meter ("When I was one-and-twenty" A.E.Housman). Now write about the experience. Do you detect any particular strengths offered by regular meter? How about by free verse?
To post your response, click on the Discussion Tab at the top of the page, paste in your essay/response and click post. Then everyone can read all the responses; I can read and grade, and everyone can respond to at least two people in the class in no less than 150 words.
By William Carlos Williams
Oh strong-ridged hollowed
nose of mine! what will you not be smelling?
What tactless asses we are, you and I, boney nose,
always indiscriminate, always unashamed,
and now it is the souring flowers of the bedraggled
poplars: a festering pulp on the wet earth
beneath them. With that deep thirst
we quicken our desires
to that rank odor of a passing springtime!
Can you not be decent? Can you not reserve your ardors
for something less unlovely? What girl will care
for us, do you think, if we continue in these ways?
Must you taste everything? Must you know everything?
Must you have a part in everything?
By A.E.Housman
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
"Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free."
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
"The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
'Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue."
And I am one-and-twenty.
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.